Hello Mr March. You're doing one hell of a job and I would be glad to help you.
I found my old copie of B-club n°79, june 1992. It has a decent MII section with color illustrations and production sketches of almost all the mecha from the show.
I will try to scan them for you if it can help.

This update of the Macross Mecha Manual features 33 new profiles. The focus for this update is revision to the Macross Frontier profiles, completing the profiles for large space ships and introduction of the Macross II section. The front page has been reorganized to accommodate the new Macross II Index Button and to help maintain a smooth page layout the For Fans Only section has graduated to a large Index Button.

Experimenting with Photoshop, I've found a better method to color for glass. As a result, I've re-finished several large ships with domes and transparent enclosures that were initially poorly colored. The Macross 7, Macross 5, Riviera Resort Ship and the Megaroad-01 (including the Flashback 2012 Banner) have all been updated with new colors. Lastly, the Header and Footer Menu Bars have been replaced in every profile, thus creating a common button style across the whole website (thanks again to Dante74 of the Macross World forums).

Added two new size charts to the For Fans Only section
Added VF-25F Fighter Mode rear view picture

Corrected spelling in VF-171 profile

Revised Stealth Frigate class name to correct the error of Bolognese as the class and to suggest the Northampton Class designation from Macross Frontier
Revised VF-17D Nightmare profile to account for the eventual redesign into the VF-171 (circa 2059)
Revised VF-0 entires in the Macross Zero section to include the designation "Phoenix" (including special notes about the official status of the name)
Revised VF-25 entires with F and S letter designations.
Revised Saratoga II CV565 Uraga Class Escort Battle Carrier with the II designation
Revised Bolognese, Guantanamo and Uraga Class ships (in both Macross Plus and Macross 7 sections) to reflect the new ships in Macross Frontier

Sweet!!! Beautiful work Mr. March. Finally some good pics of Macross II mecha. Besides some pics posted on Macrossworld by Grebo, I rarely see anything on the Macross II variable fighters. A real shame since they're some of the best designs to come out of the Macross series, IMO. I'm so happy I could almost cry. Keep up the great work man!

Tears of joy Well, I'm glad you like it. I'm not crazy about the Macross II mecha (a bit too try-hard faux-futuristic for my Valkyrie tastes) but they do make a nice addition to the M3. I'm happiest that I was able to rearrange the index page to fit the Macross II index button without throwing out the flow of the page

Well, I do agree with you that the Macross II Valkyrie designs make a drastic departure from the designs of the original Macross series. But Macross II does take place 70 years after Macross and 50 years after Macross Plus. Think about how fighter designs have changed in our world in that amount of time. They're a lot sleeker and more streamlined than the first jets that ever flew.

Anyways, didn't mean to get defensive on ya. You've got a great site going and I'm enjoying your work, so I guess I won't hold it against you.

LOL! I'm glad to hear that We can't all like the same things. Everyone has an opinion after all. No shame in having an opinion and no need to apologize for it.

In my opinion, the Valkyries of Macross II are simply aerodynamically unsound. They don't look capable of actually generating lift and many of the surfaces would make high speed flight or maneuvering impossible. All the Kawamori Valkyries benefit greatly from his engineering background and appear able to generate lift with as little drag as possible (with some minor compromises). The VF-2SS may be primarily a space fighter, but it's also supposed to fly which I don't believe it can.

I also don't feel Macross II designs have aged well. IMO, the design elements used to make the VF-2SS "appear" far-futuristic have actually dated it. In the design chronology, the VF-2SS is only 2 years younger than the YF-19 and the YF-21 (Macross II was 1992 and Macross Plus was 1994), yet both Macross Plus fighters look far more futuristic and aerodynamic than the VF-2SS. Yes, some Macross designs like the VF-1 Valkyrie or the VF-17 Nightmare are dated as well, but as old as they get those designs will always look like flight capable fighters. Just like the F-15 Eagle and F-14 Tomcat are old and dated but can be appreciated for their practical design and still command respect.

To use a recent example, it's like those Yukikaze designs, if you've ever seen the anime. The mechanical designers tried too hard to make the fighters look like slick "high technology" craft but all that faux-futuristic styling accomplishes is to make the designs look dated in the long term. Sure the Yukikaze fighters look pretty, but it's all short term beauty. The more one looks at the designs the more it becomes apparent they can't actually fly. Again, Yukikaze is only a few years old (released 2002-2006) yet the Macross Frontier designs (2007) have already showed them up, being far more realistic yet just as sleek and attractive.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. I guess I've been spoiled by Kawamori's properly built designs so it's hard to go back to hamburger helper when I'm used to filet mignon

Alright, I give. From a practical real-world standpoint, I will concede that the variable fighter designs of Macross II may not be aerodynamically sound. But, we are talking about grown men here watching an anime, essentially a complex cartoon with a storyline, with fightercraft that can transform into 50-foot robots. A little suspension of disbelief is appropriate I think.

And for the record, I really like filet mignon too, but we can't eat steak everyday or we would soon tire of it.

That's true, I just wanted to explain my preferences, cause we all have them. Like I said, Kawamori's aerodynamically sound designs have kinda spoiled me for Macross. When I see a Valkyrie, I expect to see something that looks like it can fly. If the VF-2SS was a Mospeada or Yukikaze design, I'd probably appreciate it more.

I actually took the filet mignon line from a Jay-Z song. I'm hooked on his latest album

Just a minor update to the Macross Mecha Manual, featuring only 14 new profiles. The update consists mainly of corrections and revisions. A portion of the existing artwork contains color errors that occur when a Photoshop PSD file is down-converted to a 256 color gif. I've corrected many of these color errors for the VF-1 Super variants, the VF-11C Protect Armor, the YF-19/VF-19A Excalibur artwork, and all the Queadluun-Rau (Film Version) pictures (both DYRL and Macross 7) feature a completely new line art scan and coloring. Many VF-1 profiles have minor color/shading improvements and the weapons/equipment pictures have been refined where needed.

Significant new material is found in the For Fans Only section. A new Thrust-to-Weight Ratio Chart has been added (thanks to Dante74) providing a rough performance comparison of the variable fighters. A new subsection of For Fans Only appears for Animated Diagrams that highlight important details of the various valkyries. New and veteran Macross fans alike are encouraged to take a look at these animated pictures to appreciate the detail that goes into Shoji Kawamori's magnificent mechanical creations. The final addition is a complete revision of the Macropedia section with improved navigation and well over double the content.

A word to the wise: Do yourself a favor and refrain from screeds on "why my mecha designer's work is better than X."

There are a lot of people on this site who enjoy the work of a lot of different mecha designers. I understand you really enjoy Mr. Kawamori's work, but putting down Mr. Ohata's and Mr. Yamashita's work is just unacceptable. Constructing weak arguments to defend this kind of "my guy uber alles" is even worse.

The unwritten rule here is that if I don't like your favorite, or if you don't like my favorite, that's a difference in choices - not a reason to bash another artist's work, or the preference of another fan for another artist's work. I would normally follow the rule of silence here, but bashing another fan's likes is hyper uncool. Pounding on him like you did only creates discord on the site, and tempts other people to pick apart your bashing item by item.

Since flame wars are not allowed at GEARS, I'm not going to get into one with you. I simply am pointing out that if somebody likes the design work on Macross II and you don't, it is not your right to slap him down. It's rude, immature and only detracts from your great work on your Macross website.

The unwritten rule here is that if I don't like your favorite, or if you don't like my favorite, that's a difference in choices - not a reason to bash another artist's work, or the preference of another fan for another artist's work. I would normally follow the rule of silence here, but bashing another fan's likes is hyper uncool. Pounding on him like you did only creates discord on the site, and tempts other people to pick apart your bashing item by item.

Whoah Newton! A virtual knight in shining armor. Hah, just jokes. While I do appreciate the fact that you responded in my defense, I think in this instance, it may be unwarranted.

I was enjoying the banter Mr. March and I were having back and forth. We were just voicing a difference in opinions. Unless I failed to read something hidden in his posts, I don't think Mr. March was being meanspirited.

And no, he didn't browbeat me. The whole world could tell me the variable fighter designs in Macross II sucked and I would disagree. Respectfully of course. He was looking at the designs from an aerodynamic viewpoint, whereas I was expressing a purely aesthetic viewpoint.

Anyways, thanks. I sure could have used someone like you in my corner in the Macrossworld forums. Some real haters in that crowd.

Thank you so much Monster. I was waiting and hoping that'd you reply. I agree, we had a great discussion and it was clear we were both rationally discussion a difference of taste. We both offered up opinions and listened carefully. What's more important is perspective; here I am stating my own dislike for the Macross II mecha, yet I'm still working on M2 material and posting it on my website. So what's the problem?

It actually concerns me a great deal that a cordial discussion like this would be considered brow beating or flaming by some. This discussion was anything but, by any reasonable benchmark.